NYT-
Direct lending is one way that the government could get involved in the mortgage market, but remember: The government is already integrated vertically and horizontally and up to its eyeballs in this business.
For many Americans, mortgages themselves are a bad fit: individuals who might be injured and out of work for six months, or families that could go from two incomes to one, or households entering retirement and living on a fixed income. For these and many other income-sensitive and credit-precarious American families, we need to think beyond the mortgage — not just add the government as another lender. And the current mortgage system already caters to the Americans who can comfortably afford a mortgage, with little risk of foreclosure — the sort of borrowers to whom the government would want to issue mortgages.